What are the differences between Out-of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams and Astral Projection?

Are there any differences between wake induced lucid dreams and lucid dreams that happen after you fall asleep?

Ultimately, the destination is always the same. The astral plane. The only difference is the perception, the understanding of the experience.

I think the difference is hard to quantify and this is one of the reasons I want to become very proficient at having lucid dreams before moving on to astral projection. I want to be able to find an actual distinction, if possible, or explore what any potential distinction might be.

You can say that dreams are "just in your head" while AP'ing takes you "outside" of it, but once you become so immersed into spirituality it becomes hard to even distinguish between those two things.

One possible difference is that AP zones can reflect actual physical reality (though they don't have to), and are informed more directly from that than primarily by your (semi) conscious awareness as in a dream, in the same way ESP and remote viewing work. In fact Robert Bruce terms a very dense and physical-like part of the "astral planes" the "real-time zone" or RTZ, which is supposed to be a "real-time" reflection of physical reality.



Imo this is like asking what is the difference between blue and purple.

In some cultures, their language does not even make the distinction between those two colors. In other cultures, there are 7 words for what we would all in English simply call different shades of blue. But a good question nonetheless. The ultimate answer is that it's all going to be the exact same anyway, no difference between anything except by perception only, as the poster above mentioned.

I have had some of these experiences but bringing them into greater "control" has proved a bit difficult. For me, wandering through fields "awake" and contemplating that waking reality is no different from dream has payed the biggest rewards so far. It seems backwards but finding "lucid" moments "awake" makes the most sense to me. Like, if I am to suppose that dreamland is more real than previously taught, then wakeland must be considerable less. To expound on that, if my conscious spends most time awake, then this would be the easiest place to see any evidence of distortion. Also, I have a theory that the lessons I learn conscious can aid me in the sleep mode of subconscious control. Don't know, I am a neophyte that is still trying new things.

I used to have lots of lucid dreams. I used to keep a journal on them and I tried experiments and such. Not sure where my journal is now though. Lately I have been having dreams before I even fall asleep. I lay down and want to fall asleep and then I start talking to people or hear people talk to me before I even went to sleep yet. That's kind of wierd. Never had that happen before.

Once when I was trying to have an OOBE I worked on it for a few months, and then I think it worked. I got up, walked over to the window, and pushed my hand right through it. That was the whole extent of my OOBE. I don't know if it was a true OBE. It seemed like real life. I don't recall floating or anything. Other people have said their OBE's were like ghost-like or spiritual so I don't know if I had a true OBE. But it was different than anything I'd ever experienced before.

I have an Nova Pro 100 light and sound machine but I don't think it ever helped me to acquire any of these states. I wish I knew better how to use it.

A thin veil of perception
and consciousness

But some people say that it is alright to go superheroing in lucid dreams, but not astral projections. If it is ok to do that in lucid dreams, why not OBEs (especially since some people say that they are one and the some)?